Victims of Ineptitude

Victims of Ineptitude

There are many organizations committed to the fight against ill-health, the best known being the World Health Organization, founded in 1948 and funded from the pockets of ordinary people and their governments. Consider the extraordinary battle the WHO waged against smallpox in the 1970's and won. The latest and probably the toughest challenge so far, is that of AIDS, currently killing millions of people worldwide and leaving behind hords of tiny orphans. The WHO has been one of the leaders in this war which is being waged by its staff of international Civil Servants who take intense personal risks by undertaking heroic action to fight the deadly bacteria and viruses. Those facts and ideas are reflected in this book by a man who travelled for more than two decades in hostile places with scant regard for his own good health and security, in the fight for better health and living conditions among some of the world's poorest and most vulnerable people.
It comes as a shock therefore to discover that in the writer's experience, the WHO can be a cold organization which shows little respect for its hardworked staff and considerably wasteful, misspending of its precious public funding to pay for errors and mismanagement. This is a story of human tragedy and massive disillusinment. It will page after page surprise readers of goodwill and reason who will surely find it hard to believe that the administration of such a large outfit with such great responsibility can behave in the way illustrated in the book. This is the saddening picture painted in this book by a long serving and highly placed official who writes movingly from his own experience.
The writer and two valued professional colleagues venture to a remote part of Africa on humanitarian WHO mission. The story relates what becomes of them, the callous treatment they and their families receive, the legal lengths the WHO leadership-right to the very top of the Organization -has been